The distance race is a struggle that results in self-discovery. It is an adventure involving the limits of the self

Monday, June 28, 2010

Monday Updates

Happy Monday all! It's back to the swing of these, and I have only 3 days at home this week to get everything done before we head out. I have lots of updates to share with you, hopefully I can get up to date.

SHOES: So after wearing my old Kayanos for my long run on Saturday, I was a little nervous to pull the new ones out again today. I am super happy to report that I did not feel any rubbing during my run this morning, and had no new blisters when I took them off. The spot where they had rubbed last week was a little pink, but I can deal with that. Considering my old ones are at 500 miles I feel a little better now going to the new ones full time.

CHAFFING: You may have noticed a brief mention on Saturday of how my camelbak had rubbed a small spot on my neckline- well a few hours/days and lots of pain later, I have come to realize that it did some serious damage.

As you can see I will not be using that camelbak on runs anymore, just bike rides, and the other one will be used solely for running. It has been really difficult finding things to wear the last few days. Racer back bras and tops are really the only thing that don't hurt it, but I only have so much, I really hope that these marks don’t leave nasty permanent scars.

RUNNING: The start of week 2 had a tempo on deck. My schedule was a little weird today so the only time I had to run was mid-day and there was no way I was running at noon in the 95+ degree weather, so I was banished to the treadmill. When this training cycle started I told myself I needed to really focus on doing all my runs outside, but with the heat wave from hell I know there might be a day or two when I get stuck like today, so I have devised a plan to keep it as authentic as possible.
- Change the speed every lap or 1/4 mile
- jack up the incline

So today I had a 6 mile tempo (2 easy, 2 @8:35, 2 easy). So for all easy miles I set the incline at 2.0 and put it at 1.5 for the quicker miles, after all I’m not superman.

6 miles-54:49 - 9:34,9:29,8:27,8:25,9:26,9:28

I was pleased with this run, the inclines made it challenging, and the constantly changing pace helped it fly by. I was really shooting to make sure my 2 fast miles were under 8:30 instead of 8:35 since I was on the treadmill and there was no reason I couldn’t hit that. The quicker miles felt good, the hardest part was probably the last 2 easy miles because I was ready to be done, and I was hating the 2% incline at that point, but the extra incline definitely torched some serious calories. It got me thinking that if nothing else, all this speed-work and tempos should help me really improve my 5k and 10k times.